What is the Difference Between Baby and Adult Vegetables (Besides Age)?

Youth is the ideal, right? That’s the marketing gimmick they’re selling on packages of baby carrots, baby greens, and baby anything-edible. The baby-fication of our food is yet another example of our cultural values, but in some dishes, this distinction means a different taste, texture, and nutrient density. We take a look at the age differences in greens, peas, and asparagus. Eat accordingly.

GREENS

There are at least three palatable stages of leafy green vegetables:

Microgreens are harvested when the leaves are fewer than 14 days old. They make great garnishes on salads, soups, and sandwiches. “Although small in size, microgreens can provide surprisingly intense flavors, vivid colors, and crisp textures and can be served as an edible garnish or a new salad ingredient,” researchers say in a 2012 report by the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. The report shows higher levels of vitamin C, vitamin E, and beta carotene compared to their more mature counterparts.

Baby greens are harvested during a fairly early stage of plant growth, usually between 15 to 35 days after planting, according to World’s Healthiest Foods. Baby and adult kale are nutritionally similar, says Krista Haynes, a registered dietician and owner of Sanskara Nutrition in Manhattan Beach, California. Baby kale has a slightly milder flavor, but the main difference is that baby kale is more tender and easier to eat raw, she said on NutriLiving. Most of the spinach you see at the grocery store is baby spinach, the favorite in salads and raw preparations.

Adulting Greens are usually harvested between 40 and 65 days after planting. There have been conflicting reports on whether mature vegetables have more or less nutrition than the younger leaves. They’re both great your health, so you can’t make a mistake that way. As for their culinary use, older kale needs to be cooked, massaged, or blended. In the same way as kale, mature spinach is better when cooked. It’s also what you get whole or chopped in the freezer section.

PEAS

The consensus is to buy frozen baby peas because they’re likely sweeter and fresher-tasting than the shuck-yourself “fresh” peas that often sit in storage, increasing in starchiness while losing sweetness, according to testers at Cook’s Illustrated. Petite peas, also called baby sweet peas, taste sweeter and have a creamier texture than regular peas, which have slightly tougher skins and mealy texture.

ASPARAGUS

This green stalk is not necessarily as it appears. Many of us think the thinner stalk is more tender and younger than the thicker stalks. Nope. The thickness of the spear has nothing to do with its age, in that a thin spear will not mature into a thicker spear, according to Cook’s Illustrated. Asparagus spears shoot up through the soil into the sunlight from an underground crown that can produce for up to 20 years. Both thick and thin types tasted equally sweet, nutty, and grassy to testers, and the thicker spears were just a tad more tender, surprisingly. Thicker stalks are better for broiling and roasting because they won’t shrivel as fast, and they’re better for grilling too just because they’re easier to grab with tongs. Quick-cooking thinner spears are best for stir-frying and steaming. If you’re eating your asparagus raw, the thicker stalks are best peeled into thin layers, and the thin stalks work fine whole.

Want to know more? Check out our vegetables page for articles, videos, galleries, and discussions on all things vegetable. From our hundreds of Chowhound options, we curated a few recipes using both young and old vegetables:

Recipes calling for regular spinach often just say to use a box or bag of chopped frozen spinach. This savory Greek-style pie is no exception. It also calls for store-bought frozen phyllo dough, making this dish even easier. The hardest part may be squeezing all the liquid out of the spinach after you defrost it. Oh, and then there’s brushing butter between each thin phyllo layer. But so worth it. Get our Spinach Pie recipe.

3. Potato Salad with Peas and Mint

Chowhound

Use either really fresh peas that you shell yourself or buy a bag of frozen baby peas to ensure you have the freshest, sweetest flavor in this potato salad. Instead of mayonnaise, you mix in sour cream and heavy cream. And you cook the peas in bacon fat leftover from the bacon you cook and dice. Get our Potato Salad with Peas and Mint recipe.

You want the fattest asparagus you can find for this dish to be at its best. You boil the stalks for only 1 minute, but then you grill them a few more. The gribiche adds creaminess, the crouton crumbs a little more texture, and bottarga that pungent salty cured fish roe flavor. and Get our Grilled Jumbo Asparagus with Gribiche and Bottarga recipe.

Amy Sowder is the assistant editor at Chowhound in New York City. She loves cheesy things, especially toasties and puns. She's trying to like mushrooms. Her running habit is the excuse for her gelato passion. Or is it the other way around? Follow her on Instagram, Twitter, and her blog, What Do I Eat Now. Learn more at AmySowder.com.